CheckFast vs Ahrefs Site Audit
an honest comparison
Side-by-side
| Feature | CheckFast | Ahrefs Site Audit |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing entry tier (as of 2026) | Free / $9/mo monitoring | $129/mo Lite (suite) |
| Free tier limits | 3 free monitors + one-off tools | 7-day trial only |
| Tools / dimensions covered | On-page SEO, broken links, redirects, schema, headers, speed + 15 more | Site Audit, backlinks, keywords, content, rank tracker |
| On-page SEO snapshot (titles, meta, OG) | ||
| Broken-link sweep | ||
| Redirect chain analysis | ||
| Schema / JSON-LD detection | ||
| Robots.txt + sitemap.xml audit | ||
| Security headers + CAA | ||
| Selected-strategy Lighthouse performance | Pagespeed via add-on | |
| SSL expiry monitoring | ||
| Email deliverability scoring | ||
| Cron heartbeat monitoring | ||
| Crawl depth (URLs per audit) | One page; up to 100 discovered links | deep, scaled with plan |
| Backlink index | ||
| Keyword research / rank tracker | ||
| SEO monitor cadence | 5m–60m by plan | weekly site re-crawl |
| Telegram alerts | ||
| Slack / webhook / email alerts | ||
| Public status page | Pro+ at /status/[handle] | |
| Public API | Pro $29/mo | Standard+ |
| White-label / agency | Advanced+ |
Why teams switch
Free for the on-page subset
Ahrefs Site Audit is bundled inside a $129+/mo suite. CheckFast's SEO + broken-link + redirect + schema tools are free for one-off audits.
Engineering-first SEO checks
Security headers, CAA records, redirect chain analysis, schema validation. The on-page checks an engineering team actually owns.
Bundled with site-health
Same dashboard as your uptime + SSL + email + cron monitors. SEO regressions sit next to the rest of your alerts, not in a separate $129/mo tab.
Ahrefs is the SEO suite, not just Site Audit
Ahrefs is one of the most respected SEO platforms ever built. The backlink index is the largest and freshest in the industry, the keyword data is unusually trustworthy, the content explorer surfaces ideas you would never find by hand, and the rank tracker has the resolution that serious content teams need. None of that is in CheckFast and we are not pretending to replace any of it. If your job is “grow organic traffic on twenty target keywords,” Ahrefs is the right tool and the bill is the cost of doing business.
This page is specifically about Site Audit — the on-page SEO crawler that lives inside the Ahrefs suite. Site Audit checks titles, meta descriptions, headings, internal links, redirects, schema, sitemap and robots compliance, crawl depth, and a dozen other technical SEO factors. It is very good. It also requires a $129+/mo Ahrefs subscription to use, and if Site Audit is the only part of Ahrefs you actually use, you are paying suite prices for one feature.
What CheckFast covers
The on-page technical SEO checklist a sane engineering team actually owns: title and meta tag validation, Open Graph and Twitter cards, canonical and hreflang correctness, schema.org / JSON-LD detection and validation, robots.txt and sitemap.xml audits, checks for up to 100 discovered links, redirect analysis, security headers including CAA, and a selected-strategy Lighthouse performance check — bundled into one shareable single-URL report. Free for one-off audits. Scheduled monitoring starts at $9/mo with Telegram alerts; Slack and webhook delivery require Pro or Agency. The single-page audit at /check folds nineteen dimensions into one shareable verdict you can hand to a client or a developer without a subscription.
What we do not cover
No backlink index. No keyword research. No content explorer. No rank tracking. No SERP feature tracking. No competitive content gap analysis. The current broken-link check inspects one submitted page and probes up to 100 links found on that page; it is not a recursive site crawler. For an enterprise site where crawl depth and full-site coverage matter, Ahrefs is the better fit.
The honest recommendation
Most product teams pay for Ahrefs because of the backlink data and the keyword research, then use Site Audit because it is in the bundle. If that describes you, do not cancel Ahrefs. Run CheckFast in parallel as the always-on on-page audit + monitor: it watches for broken links, broken redirects, schema regressions, missing meta tags and security header drift continuously, and pings you on Telegram or Slack the moment something changes. Ahrefs handles the strategy questions; CheckFast handles the engineering hygiene. They coexist nicely, and the second one is $9/mo flat.
FAQ
Is CheckFast a real Ahrefs alternative?+
Only for a limited subset of Site Audit. Ahrefs is famous for its backlink index, keyword research, content explorer and rank tracker — none of which CheckFast does. CheckFast provides focused SEO, broken-link and redirect checks for one submitted page rather than a site-wide crawler.
What does CheckFast's SEO tooling actually cover?+
Title and meta tag validation, Open Graph and Twitter card tags, canonical and hreflang, schema.org / JSON-LD detection, robots.txt and sitemap.xml audits, up to 100 links from the submitted page, redirect analysis, security headers, and a selected-strategy Lighthouse performance check. We do not crawl tens of thousands of URLs at depth the way Ahrefs Site Audit does at scale.
Pricing comparison?+
Ahrefs starts at $129/mo for the Lite plan and goes to $1,499/mo for Enterprise (as of 2026). Site Audit is one feature inside that bundle. CheckFast SEO checks are free for one-off audits and start at $9/mo for monitoring + scheduling.
Should I cancel Ahrefs and use CheckFast?+
Almost certainly not — they cover different jobs. Ahrefs is a content / SEO research suite. CheckFast is on-page technical SEO + site health. Many teams use both: Ahrefs for keyword and content strategy, CheckFast for the engineering-side audit (broken links, redirects, schema, headers, speed).
Do you crawl the entire site?+
No. The current broken-link check inspects one submitted page and probes up to 100 links discovered on it. Ahrefs Site Audit crawls entire sites at depth, so it is the appropriate choice for comprehensive enterprise crawls.
What about the backlink index?+
We do not have one. Ahrefs has the most respected backlink index in the industry; that is not something we are trying to replicate. If backlink data is the reason you pay for Ahrefs, keep paying for Ahrefs.